When was "originally" in your mind? Because the first I heard of this 6 months or so ago, it was going to have an ARM chip in it. Up until the price drop, there were no major hardware changes in the last few months. Maybe back in 2014 it would have been an FPGA-only system, dunno.
I don't particularly want to subject everyone reading to a WoT history of RVGS from the horse's mouth, but I intend to be thorough and I've not seen it done so far around the forums, so with that...
I'm not sure anyone on the outside knew what was intended to be inside until
Kennedy posted on April 15 at AtariAge with a message from Woita:
parrothead@AA said:
To answer the question will the RETRO VGS be PC/Linux based or Android based. The answer is neither as we are going the FPGA route. My partner Steve Woita puts it best:
- Steve Woita, "To answer the question: "What language will games be in? " My answer is: It depends. If a developer wants to make a Neo Geo game, they would include an HDL file that configures the FPGA to operate like a Neo Geo. The developer would code their game to run against the Neo Geo platform. This HDL code along with the actual Neo Geo game will be on the cartridge. Once that cartridge is placed in the RETRO VGS, it will become a Neo Geo and play that game. So in this case, the language is: 68000 and Z80 code. If you wanted to do a new 2600 styled game, you'd include a 2600 HDL file that configures the FPGA to replicate the logic of the original 2600 hardware and then you'd include your new 2600 game on that cartridge too. These two files are then paired up on the cartridge and when plugged into the RETRO VGS, will turn the console into a 2600. So the language that would be used in this case is: 6507 (6502 with less address space). Does that help explain things a little "bit" more?"
Their FAQ later added to the above with a short mention:
RVGS FAQ said:
Oh and we’ll have a nice little ARM chip for some more fun stuff.
In the same post above, Kennedy went on himself to add:
parrothead@AA said:
Note, we aren't doing this so much for hardware emulation of older software, but more importantly, giving developers of various levels the ability to program their new games using what they are already familiar with (Atari, SNES, NES, GENESIS, etc.).
Until this point, it was an all-systems-in-one machine designed to bring all homerbrewers
and maybe even the guys who made the originals BITD (
and here, from another close contact) under the same roof. At this point, the following comment is telling:
parrothead@AA said:
In a sense we might also be able to replicate an Android system and open this up to Unity developers as well.
This is where the spark seems to have ignited to head away from the all-things-to-all-men approach in favour of exploring RVGS as a modern indie box. Decisions made since this time lessened the emphasis on the FPGA side of things and in favour hyped the faux-retro modern indie "pixel" stuff.
Later that month, these were his words:
parrothead@AA said:
We are still working hard on the system specs and hardware. This is no easy task and we know we can't please everyone.
Suggesting some realisation of a need to balance the desires of their interested fanbase, afterall, everyone on board so far is looking to this FPGA all-in-one machine.
By
July, the wording of comments coming out of the RVGS camp was markedly different to the all-in-one/existing homebrewers/celebrity old men stuff:
parrothead@AA said:
This system is not going to be cheap. It will be as next gen as you can get in a cartridge based console. It will have plenty of capability to run even the biggest Retro indie titles coming to market now and in the future.
Here, I think it's safe to assume they've turned the corner and it's the ARM that's the core of the system and what they see as the key to their success. It's also hinting heavily at new pricing being inevitable - likely as a result of expanding the capabilities beyond what was intended before.
FPGA is not dead, though,
as he later posts:
parrothead@AA said:
We are also counting on developers to create their own cores so we will not only be relying on cores for existing systems. This is where it will get very interesting, seeing what developers do to push the hardware.
FPGA is still there (although accompanied by some rather overly-optimistic wishful thinking it seems).
Early September was when it became fully clear that they didn't see a future for the machine without modern indies on it:
parrothead@AA said:
Next, since we don't want the success of RVGS to lie only in the hands of smaller homebrew game developers who are making incredible retro games for the classic systems, we wanted to make RVGS capable of playing the best of today's retro inspired games coming from a great group of Indie developers around the world. And just because these games look RETRO, they are in fact, quite large, many in the 1-2GB range.
So FPGA?
parrothead@AA said:
As far as whether or not we are leaving the FGPA inside RVGS. The answer is YES. Removing this part of our hardware will significantly reduce the value and capability of this machine.
...but...
Here it seems like he's no longer interested in the homebrewers putting out 2600 and Neo Geo games etc. on his cartridges, as they will have adapters for the real thing, as in response to this question:
AA user said:
Why would a developer do something idiotic like that? They'd just go ahead and make a regular VCS game and publish it on a cartridge that way. Then you'd use the Adapter (which includes the HDL VCS core). Anyone buying a modern-day VCS cartridge is likely to have a VCS anyways.
He posted
this reply:
parrothead@AA said:
This is correct. Now that we've introduced the cart adapters that will negate the need to port any "Legacy" system's new(er) games to our carts. We'll update the FAQ.
So that's all us homebrewers out of their main masterplan and back to doing stuff as normal, albeit with the possibility of a wider audience with the correct adapter for their RVGS,
as he later posted:
parrothead@AA said:
our plan is to have a centralized location, ecommerce shopping cart site, to sell the games that can be played on our system, from our proprietary carts to homebrews on original carts from their respective systems.
After this point and the crow funding campaign is imminent, a post on facebook showed their current position:
Jonathan Lopez: Ah i see . Is it compatable with every retro game like nes , snes , genisis, master system etc ?
RETRO VGS Potentially in the future, but main focus is playing this new wave of retro games coming out ..... On cartridges.
And that's the transition from FPGA all-in-one to pixelated indies on cart. This is the point where it seems kevtris posts his feelings to AA, as it seems his role is a stretch goal add-on at best.